Patent GB-863971-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to automatic accounting machines
Filed: 1957-07-09
Abstract: 863,971. Accounting-machines; statistical record-sheet machines. BURROUGHS CORPORATION. July 9, 1957 [July 17, 1956], No. 21769/57. Class 106 (1). [Also in Group XVI] An accounting-machine has a laterally movable paper carriage and transducers in the carriage for reading a coded magnetic record formed on an inserted document, and for making such a record, as the document is fed past the transducers, by means in the carriage, the machine being adapted to print the amounts read and recorded in different columns on the document. The invention is applied to the fullkeyboard, independently operated machine described in Specification 709,181 having a programme control unit mounted in the carriage and settable to select different programmes. The electrical components in the carriage of the present machine are connected by a flexible cable to the base portion of the machine and the latter is mounted on a desk housing much of the electrical equipment. Certain of the controls exercised by the programme unit may be modified by energizing solenoids as described in Specification 782,253. Moreover, an additional section of the programme unit selectively controls a set of seven switches in the base machine in accordance with the carriage position. A pair of " In-tab " switches are closed whenever the carriage is in a columnar position. The switches of a further bank are actuated at predetermined points in the base machine cycle for control purposes by cams on a shaft belt driven from the main cam shaft. A counter is actuated in certain columnar positions under the control of the programme unit. The machine is particularly adapted for banking transactions, an inserted statement sheet, e.g. as shown in Fig. 4c, bearing on its rear side three narrow magnetic tracks 78 incorporating a record of the Old Balance, which is automatically entered into the machine. After a series of items has been entered by the operator, the New Balance is recorded on the magnetic tracks as the statement sheet is ejected. Keyboard.-The keyboard is generally similar to that disclosed in Specification 709,181 but includes additional control keys, switches operated by certain ones of the control keys and solenoids for automatic depression of certain others of the control keys. In addition, the interlocking mechanism is modified to free the keyboard for setting by the operator while the carriage mechanism is cycling and at the same time, to prevent the base machine from cycling. This is achieved by means of arms raised by a solenoid so as to block the known interlocking bail. A known keyboard repeat mechanism is now actuated by a further solenoid. These modifications permit an operator to set a first item while the magnetic record is being sensed and the corresponding amount is being printed. Paper carriage.-The carriage is basically similar to that described in Specification 709,181 having a roller platen 36, Fig. 75, mounted in an inner frame 1088 rockable about a shaft 1092 by operation of a bail 1096 to retract the platen to open the carriage for the front entry of documents. In the present machine, an additional guide plate 284 extends rearwardly from beneath the platen to guide inserted documents which pass on to the upper surface of the programme control unit 38. Presettable guides 286, 288, Fig. 7, for the edges of a document are mounted in front of the plate 284. When the programme control unit 38, Fig. 29, is adjusted laterally in known manner by the knob 1741, to programme " one," a cam projection 302 lowers an additional guide 296 to effective position to guide the narrower documents used with that programme. When a document is inserted from in front of the platen, its lower edge engages three pushers, e.g. 310, which are actuated by cams on a carriage programme cam shaft 48 to be described to move the lower edge of the sheet forwardly a little and so to align it accurately. An inserted sheet may be fed into and out of the carriage by feed rolls 260, 262, 266 on a shaft 86 in co-operation with independently mounted idler rolls which may be raised to inoperative positions by cams on the shaft 48. A roller-actuated " paper " switch 360 arranged in line with the feed rolls closes on the insertion of a document between its rollers to initiate the above mentioned aligning operation and similar but normally closed " paper " switches 361, 362 adjustably mounted at the rear of the carriage are used as described below in determining the initial line position of the document. A further switch is operated when the carriage is opened. The pressure rolls 1132 co-operating with the platen are, in the present machine, carried by arms 416, Fig. 85b, on a shaft 414 carried by the inner frame 1088. The arms 416 may be depressed, against the action of springs, to withdraw the rolls 1132 by the clockwise rocking of a bar 400 having fingers 408 arranged to engage ears 417 of the arms 416. This is effected by cams 406, Fig. 86b, on the ends of the bar 400 which are engaged by fixed studs 420 when the carriage is opened (i.e. when the inner frame 1088 is swung clockwise). The rolls 1132 are reapplied after the closing of the carriage by a reset link 422 which is actuated by a cam on the shaft 48, and the nose of which acts on the cam 406. Mounted on the carriage are three magnetic read/write heads in a potted assembly 330, Figs. 7 and 67, mounted between arms 345 pivoted on a rod 276 by means of slots to permit of self-alignment. The assembly is spring biased against a co-operating roller 264 on the feed roller shaft 86 which then maintains the record material against the heads, but may be raised to an inoperative position by a member 354, 355 actuated by a cam on the shaft 48. The carriage supports an electric motor 46 for driving the feed and control mechanism. The motor drives an " emitter " 92 (see also Fig. 22, not shown), which is formed by cam-operated contacts and provides timing pulses synchronized with the movement of an inserted document. The carriage programme shaft 48 is driven through a one-revolution clutch 124, controlled by a solenoid, and a 5: 1 reduction gear. Some cams on this shaft operate mechanically whereas others actuate switches adjustably mounted in two banks. The paper-feed shaft 170 is driven through a reverse gear 162 controlled by a solenoid and through the clutch described in Specification 789,939 (see present Figs. 26-28, not shown), which when disengaged under the control of a solenoid, arrests the driven shaft in the next one of ten discrete positions corresponding to lines of the inserted document. Line-spacing.-The carriage supports a main roller platen and a smaller coaxial roller platen. Each of these carries at its outer end a linespacing ratchet wheel engageable by a linespacing pawl, but only that pawl associated with the platen in printing position is freed for effective operation. A control shaft 446, Fig. 84a, is formed, adjacent to the split between the platens, with cams 448, 450 which co-operate with a fixed projection 452 to rotate the shaft 446 to one position or another according to which platen is to be effective. An arm 454 is secured to each end of the shaft and, when depressed, acts on a pin 456 engaged in a cam slot 460 of a corresponding disabling link 462 (see also Fig. 80). Thus, one of the links 462 is lowered to engage a pin 466 in the corresponding line-spacing pawl 440 to prevent it engaging its ratchet wheel. The abovementioned line-spacing pawls are reciprocated in known manner but in the present machine, an additional line-spacing pawl 472 is provided which is actuated by a cam on the carriage programme shaft, while the carriage is in " open " condition, to line-space the main platen. Magnetic record.-The magnetic zone on the rear of the inserted document has three tracks extending parallel to the direction of feed. On these tracks respectively are recorded (1) eleven decimal digits and a sign digit corresponding to the amount and sign of the Balance and an account number (the two uppermost digits); (2) a complementary representation of the data stored in the first track; and (3) a representation of the next available printing line on the document. Each decimal digit is represented in a four-bit code, the bits having the values 1, 2, 4 and 7 respectively, and the complementary representation consists of those bits not contained in the normal digit representation, i.e. it is the complement with respect to 14. Thus, the representation of each digit together with the complementary representation comprises four bits. The bits within a digit, and the digits themselves, are arranged in series on each track. The sign of the balance is represented by the last digit to be read i.e. the uppermost digit on the document, which is " 0 " for positive amounts and " 1 " for negative amounts. The total number of pulses derived from the reading of the data and complement tracks is thus 48, of which the last three are always derived from the complement track. The " line find " track is arranged to show a change in polarity at a point corresponding to the next available printing line. Reading magnetic record.-The inserted document is fed into the machine to enable the magnetic record to be read as described below under " Operation." The eleven digits read from the magnetic record are stored in coded form in 44 relays, Fig. 112, shown arranged in four rows corresponding to the four bits of the code. The " pick " windings of these relays are successively placed in the anode circuit of an information driver tube, Fig. 111, by means of the first banks SS1-T1, SS2-T1 of two stepping switches SS1, SS2. The first of these is stepped at each pulse position by its solenoid which, throughout the operation, is in the anode circuit of a step switch driver tube to which are applied pulses from a univibrator triggered by pulses derived from the data track and by those derived f